Well after an amazing breakfast at Anne's house on Monday morning, the day went somewhat downhill...
Firstly we found that there were no trains available with bike reservations until next Wednesday to get us back to London, so we spent 2 hours looking into the options to be able to get us and our bikes all the way home. After looking at flight options out of Wick, car hire from Inverness and trains from Glasgow, Helen found the Royal Mail postal service which should be able to take our bikes from Thurso back in a box to London...so we booked our train tickets back from Thurso and hope that our bikes will get there as well.
We eventually set off at 11 in the morning feeling a tad stressed after phoning rail companies, car hire places etc, and then got ourselves a bit lost. This wasn't due to Anne's directions (which were extremely clear) but due to us seeing an off road sign which took us onto the Union Canal. After nearly falling in a couple of times, and dismounting to slip and slide across an aqueduct bridge, we realised we hadn't a clue where we were. Eventually we came out to an industrial estate and managed to get back on track. There was a rather over-excited cheer from both Helen and I when we saw the Forth Bridge (which I posed in front of with my can of Iron Bru) which quickly turned to a whimper as Helen nearly got blown off her bike a combination of cross winds and large lorries. The Forth Bridge itself was a doddle as there is a really good cycle lane with barriers protecting you from the traffic. We got through to Dumfermline and then headed on towards Crieff.
As we left Dumfermline, it tipped it down with rain - luckily we had just decided it was time for lunch so to shelter at a bus stop, ate our lunches and dug out the waterproofs. It started to ease off a bit as we set out. A tad chilly at this point, but I managed to find some great local wild raspberries which helped the day along. Fell off at one point as I couldn't get my shoe to unclip, but landed onto a soft verge and lay there laughing until Helen came to help me disintangle from the bike.
Cycled through Glen Devon against a very strong head wind - sense of humour stretching a bit at this point as it was like cycling through treacle. Took it in turns to follow in the slip-stream of each other, but seemed to make very slow progress. Got to the top of the hill and then had a chocolate break before coasting down to Glen Eagles and on to Crieff.
Just outside of Crieff my biggest sense of humour test happened when the cleat from the bottom of my shoe got stuck in the pedal minus the shoe - equivalent of limping on a bike all the way to the hostel. May have been a few swear-words uttered whenever my foot slipped off the peddle. Big cheer when we got to the Comrie-Crieff hostel. Very nice chap at the bike hire/reception place called Andrew managed to prise the cleat out of my pedal and eventually I screwed it back onto the shoe. Hurrah.
The hostel was rather nice, with some lovely views. Went out for a post dinner walk and found a sheep stuck in a fence - wandered around trying to find a farmhouse, but eventually someone came along from the hostel and pushed it out again (my attempts at pulling it out backwards didn't work).
All in all a bit of a testing day...if our sense of humours could survive that, they should be able to hold out all the way to John O'Groats. I dreamt of sheep whose hooves had become stuck on bike pedals and cycling through very thick Irn Bru...
Firstly we found that there were no trains available with bike reservations until next Wednesday to get us back to London, so we spent 2 hours looking into the options to be able to get us and our bikes all the way home. After looking at flight options out of Wick, car hire from Inverness and trains from Glasgow, Helen found the Royal Mail postal service which should be able to take our bikes from Thurso back in a box to London...so we booked our train tickets back from Thurso and hope that our bikes will get there as well.
We eventually set off at 11 in the morning feeling a tad stressed after phoning rail companies, car hire places etc, and then got ourselves a bit lost. This wasn't due to Anne's directions (which were extremely clear) but due to us seeing an off road sign which took us onto the Union Canal. After nearly falling in a couple of times, and dismounting to slip and slide across an aqueduct bridge, we realised we hadn't a clue where we were. Eventually we came out to an industrial estate and managed to get back on track. There was a rather over-excited cheer from both Helen and I when we saw the Forth Bridge (which I posed in front of with my can of Iron Bru) which quickly turned to a whimper as Helen nearly got blown off her bike a combination of cross winds and large lorries. The Forth Bridge itself was a doddle as there is a really good cycle lane with barriers protecting you from the traffic. We got through to Dumfermline and then headed on towards Crieff.
As we left Dumfermline, it tipped it down with rain - luckily we had just decided it was time for lunch so to shelter at a bus stop, ate our lunches and dug out the waterproofs. It started to ease off a bit as we set out. A tad chilly at this point, but I managed to find some great local wild raspberries which helped the day along. Fell off at one point as I couldn't get my shoe to unclip, but landed onto a soft verge and lay there laughing until Helen came to help me disintangle from the bike.
Cycled through Glen Devon against a very strong head wind - sense of humour stretching a bit at this point as it was like cycling through treacle. Took it in turns to follow in the slip-stream of each other, but seemed to make very slow progress. Got to the top of the hill and then had a chocolate break before coasting down to Glen Eagles and on to Crieff.
Just outside of Crieff my biggest sense of humour test happened when the cleat from the bottom of my shoe got stuck in the pedal minus the shoe - equivalent of limping on a bike all the way to the hostel. May have been a few swear-words uttered whenever my foot slipped off the peddle. Big cheer when we got to the Comrie-Crieff hostel. Very nice chap at the bike hire/reception place called Andrew managed to prise the cleat out of my pedal and eventually I screwed it back onto the shoe. Hurrah.
The hostel was rather nice, with some lovely views. Went out for a post dinner walk and found a sheep stuck in a fence - wandered around trying to find a farmhouse, but eventually someone came along from the hostel and pushed it out again (my attempts at pulling it out backwards didn't work).
All in all a bit of a testing day...if our sense of humours could survive that, they should be able to hold out all the way to John O'Groats. I dreamt of sheep whose hooves had become stuck on bike pedals and cycling through very thick Irn Bru...
No comments:
Post a Comment